Skills Drop punt

[Boomerfan99]

I'm 41 and have signed up for footy masters, which starts in a few weeks. I grew up playing rugby union and have never played footy before.

My marking and handballing are ok But really struggling with the drop punt. Growing up playing union, my natural kick is a torp.

I can a drop punt kick ok for about 20 m max, but I really have to think about my routine. This doesn't bide well when kicking further or on the run, when I tend to spray it.

Should I just keep practicing the short kicks until it becomes second nature before I worry about long distances and kicking on the run?

 

[cptkirk]

use whatever kick you need to at that time meaning just get out there and get some reps under the belt of all different kicks

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Just kick torps I reckon

Old dog, new tricks etc

Don't look for short passes by foot. Run, handball or kick it long.

 

[Aeglos]

Kicking on the run is v. diff to kicking from stationary/walk (so much so I have 2 different ball grips).
I'd definitely begin practicing both straight away.
Atm I'd just be worrying about kicking in a straight line to get rhythm/accuracy down then start to dial in distance later down the track.

 

[davefromjerra]

Just kick torps I reckon

This is terrible advice. I've played footy with a lot of Rogby converts and pretty much all of them have managed to learn a reasonable drop punt. if you're doing kicking drills at training with your teammates you need to be kicking drop punts. Don't worry if you revert to the torp occasionally on game day.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

This is terrible advice. I've played footy with a lot of Rogby converts and pretty much all of them have managed to learn a reasonable drop punt. if you're doing kicking drills at training with your teammates you need to be kicking drop punts. Don't worry if you revert to the torp occasionally on game day.

Training lol!

Read his post properly

He's playing footy masters

 

[davefromjerra]

Training lol!

Read his post properly

He's playing footy masters

I've played Masters for the last 16 years in Canberra and Townsville. Training at least once a week is pretty standard for any Masters team.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I've played Masters for the last 16 years in Canberra and Townsville. Training at least once a week is pretty standard for any Masters team.

Fair enough!

I stand corrected if that's the case

No one trains for masters here. It's social footy, akin to a game of indoor cricket or touch rugby.

Yeah if he's actually training and can invest some time then learning a drop punt is a good idea. If not I wouldn't bother.

 

[La Vache]

I play Masters footy in Melbourne. Our club usually has around 10 new men and women from unfamiliar footy backgrounds turn up every summer for pre-season. Quite a few drop off before the season.

The advice I would give is get down to all the sessions possible. Demand the footy even if you can't remember names. Get as many kicks in as you can. Stretch often. Don't stress about errors. If you're spraying them steady a bit more. Talk to the good kicks in the side. Fatigue is when I really start butchering it so if you can improve your running then that's good too.

 

[ike2112]

Keep practicing the drop punt. Maybe even try hitting a tree about 25m away (so a small stretch from your current 20m).

Progress to a jog which then slows to walking pace as you kick. Again, 25m.

Add in that you are catching the footy, run around a cone then slow to a jog, straighten, slow to almost walking then kick at the tree, 25m. The straighten part is really important, far too many times people kick slightly across the body and when you're learning new mechanics, that's a bad habit that you don't want to feed.

For all of the above, if you can have someone film you from the side so that you can see flaws in technique, that is the ideal because we are not always aware of our body positions. I know I corrected both my balance arm and hip position from doing this despite kicking for years before seeing this.

Eventually you should become aware enough of your body mechanics that you can kick at a jog. Opening up the hip of the kicking leg is important, as it the position of the balancing arm and making sure you hold onto the footy as long as you can, guiding it down as long as your arm allows.
Once you get the hang of that, start adding distance. Distance comes from leg speed, and really it tends to mean a combination of how fast your own muscles will power your leg through, and also your own movement/power at point of kick will assist (i.e. if you're running and make clean contact, the footy will travel further - so being able to kick on the run adds to your distance).

At age 41 your leg speed isn't likely to get that much better even with training; you're on the downward slope though the very early days of it. But I'd be focused more on good stretches and warmups for injury prevention. Getting your hip flexors flexing (google stretches), and lots of work on hamstrings (these deccelerate the leg speed at end of kick).

But once you can kick on the jog I'd do the same drills but stretch the distance to 30m and then to 35m and then do it at running pace instead of jogging. Once you're close to 40m I'd consider it a huge win for yourself and not try push it, because again as someone in their 40s doing new things, injury risk rises. Plenty of footy players outside of the top level would kill to have a consistent 40m kick - being able to kick it 50 isn't the be-all, end-all.